


No One

by Aly_H



Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Cerberus - Freeform, Cerberus Reyes, Gen, Headcanon, Initiative Recruitment, Pre-Mass Effect 2, Pre-Mass Effect: Andromeda, Project Lazarus, Reyes Vidal backstory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-10
Updated: 2019-01-10
Packaged: 2019-10-07 17:42:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17370515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aly_H/pseuds/Aly_H
Summary: Who was Reyes Vidal in the Milky Way? Perhaps he was no one, a simple smuggler who took advantage of the chaos of Andromeda because he had a good nose for opportunity. Or, perhaps, the Collective and the Charlatan were influenced by a past with far more sinister characters that Reyes left behind for Andromeda.Just a brief snippet of an idea for a headcanon I have about Reyes' backstory, featuring a conversation between him and Miranda Lawson.





	No One

“A new life, huh?” Lawson made him nervous, she always had. There’s the chance she won’t be okay with this - with his leaving - that Cerberus won’t let him go now, with all he knows. “Six hundred years across the stars in a vain hope that _something_ waits. Those are hardly good odds, Vidal.”

“You wanted me as your pilot – you got a better one now,” he pointed out.

It stung his pride some to admit it but Jeff Moreau was _definitely_ a better choice on the _Normandy_ SV-2. Not only as the better pilot but from the standpoint of the organization:

Shepherd was necessary for the plan, but also someone who’d see Cerberus itself as a threat – and with good reason. Gratitude for his return to the land of the living wouldn’t be enough to endear Miranda or any of them to him. The Illusive Man wanted Moreau where Shepherd could see him, to be a recognizable voice going ‘Cerberus isn’t really so bad’.

He understood that. It also meant he was off the suicide mission that Lawson had been finalizing the team for for nearly a year now.

So he’d found himself his own shot in the dark:

A new galaxy, a new chance. A chance to be his own man, not an agent of Cerberus, not some third-rate smuggler working for Aria T’loak or her ilk. (Not that he’d been third-rate for a long time, his skills as a smuggler had gotten him recruited by Miranda but they weren’t what made him valued Cerberus, he’d taken advantage and learned all he could to become _better_ the moment he’d the chance.)

Especially when he’d never believed in the organization the way some of the others he had met did. And the human cost of some of the things that went on…even just the ones he _knew_ about, let alone the ones he didn’t, had become too high for him to entirely ignore the prick at the back of his mind telling him that things were wrong.

Cerberus could get him in the Initiative if they agreed to let him go. Miranda had been the one to bring him in in the first place and now her eyes were studying him as he lit his cigarette, waiting for her decision.

Reyes Vidal wasn’t a good man, and he wouldn’t be in Andromeda but he would be _someone_.

“…if I – if Shepherd – can’t stop the Reapers this Initiative might be the best shot at humanity surviving at all,” she said quietly, leaning against the wall. “The Illusive Man is sending agents along to look after an ‘insurance’. I’ll get you added to the list to be inserted.” She glanced over and smiled a little, “If you change your mind about being Cerberus six hundred years from now no one here is going to be alive to care whether things go right or not.”

“No one except EDI,” he smiled affectionately as he thought about the ship he’d been flying as her test pilot since the decision to reconstruct the _Normandy_ had been made. He got on well with the AI that had been installed, truthfully.

Miranda shook her head, trying not to smile at that, “Take care of yourself, Vidal. I’d hate for us to lose you for no reason.”

“Good luck with Shepherd, Miranda. Not long until ‘wake-up’ day now.”

“A few months now,” she frowned – the project was nearly done and only Miranda would seem more concerned about Lazarus as its success became clear, not less. “Why Andromeda, Vidal? You could make something of yourself without signing up on some suicidal mission into the unknown.”

_As if she were one to talk_.

Still, he was silent for a long time. He didn’t really have an answer for _why_ _the Initiative?_ “I have a good feeling about it.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! And I hope you enjoyed!
> 
> If you're interested in more of Cerberus Reyes I wrote another ficlet of along a similar theme with him and EDI that's called ["Old Friendships & New"](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13431561/chapters/30781980).


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